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Thailand: Refining Cultural Values

Creator

Ratanakul, Pinit

Bibliographic Citation

Hastings Center Report. 1990 Mar/Apr; 20(2): 25-27.

Abstract

In the second of a set of three articles concerned with "bioethics on the Pacific Rim," Ratanakul, director of a research center for Southeast Asian cultures in Thailand, provides an overview of bioethical issues in his country. He focuses on four issues: health care allocation, AIDS, determination of death, and euthanasia. The introduction of Western medicine into Thailand has brought with it a multitude of ethical problems created in part by tension between Western and Buddhist values. For this reason, Ratanakul concludes that "bioethical enquiry in Thailand must not only examine ethical dilemmas that arise in the actual practice of medicine and research in the life sciences, but must also deal with the refinement and clarification of applicable Thai cultural and moral values." (KIE abstract)